NIN more Goth: Discussion of goth influences and NIN

[Halo Infinity]

[sonic_discord]

Is this a person of any kind of importance? If it's a band, I've never heard of them. Anyway, a lot of "goth" people have obviously been NIN fans over the years, but I feel like I've never heard anyone refer to them as a "goth band." They certainly had more of a goth image in the '90s, but they're almost always labeled as industrial rock, alternative rock, synth-pop, etc.

[Halo Infinity]

@sonic_discord - I found it because I'm sometimes still curious and interested about goth crossing paths with Nine Inch Nails, and Accumortis's account turned out to be one of the search results on YouTube, but then I noticed that Accumortis also had a Twitter account, so I just took a look to see what he thought of Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, and that's how I found that tweet.

This actually wasn't from a random search for Nine Inch Nails being referred on Twitter for me this time though, as I sometimes like to see NIN related tweets on Twitter, no matter who tweets them.

But yes, it certainly made me wonder as well. The crossover is absolutely undeniable.

[katara]

@sonic_discord - I found it because I'm sometimes still curious and interested about goth crossing paths with Nine Inch Nails, and Accumortis's account turned out to be one of the search results on YouTube, but then I noticed that Accumortis also had a Twitter account, so I just took a look to see what he thought of Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, and that's how I found that tweet.

This actually wasn't from a random search for Nine Inch Nails being referred on Twitter for me this time though, as I sometimes like to see NIN related tweets on Twitter, no matter who tweets them.

But yes, it certainly made me wonder as well. The crossover is absolutely undeniable.

I'd say the most goth thing NIN has ever done is cover Joy Division's 'Dead Souls'.

[botley]

I'd say the most goth thing NIN has ever done is cover Joy Division's 'Dead Souls'.

Well, there was also that one time they played an acoustic medley of "Strange Kind of Love" and "Bela Lugosi's Dead" with Peter Murphy in 2009.

This person quoted by @Halo Infinity doesn't know NIN's work well enough to make offhanded 'not goth LOL' comments, and the discussion of it constitutes drift from NIN Spotting (by my estimation, as long as the topic is NIN appearances/shoutouts in the news and not random social media).

Mind you, split into its own thread, tracing the goth aesthetic and its notable (or not) influence on NIN could be an interesting topic.

[botley]

And here we are!

I think it's self-evident, looking at promo shots from the Downward Spiral era, that NIN certainly had a fashion sense influenced by goth. Whether the music overlaps significantly with artists in that musical subgenre is another question entirely.

[Magnetic]

I was in the goth scene circa 1996-2006, and while there were a lot of goths who liked NIN, I wouldn't have classified NIN as goth. I wouldn't have looped NIN in with industrial, either, for that matter.
Musically, NIN has always been it's own strange bird (which is good!).

[theimage13]

And here we are!

I think it's self-evident, looking at promo shots from the Downward Spiral era, that NIN certainly had a fashion sense influenced by goth. Whether the music overlaps significantly with artists in that musical subgenre is another question entirely.

And the answer to that, for me anyway, has always been no. That's not to say whether or not Trent was listening to goth bands and was influenced by them, but if I had to put a label on the NIN catalog, "goth" definitely wouldn't be it.

[Shadaloo]

There's goth music, and there's music that goths tend to listen to quite a bit. NIN are the latter, and I'd say that is to be expected considering a) their influences, particularly Joy Division, Gary Numan, Bowie, Bauhaus, Love & Rockets, Ministry (again, most of those fall squarely into the second category), and b) the strong association between goth and industrial /industrial rock during the 80's- 90s.

The Pumpkins are definitely more directly rooted in goth music, to varying extents through their career. Much of the pre-Gish material was very Cure influenced.

Of course The Cure are now considered a classic 'goth rock' band, but their works are far too varied to apply that moniker to them as a whole. And of course basically anyone who that term was applied to distanced themselves from it

[piggy]

Yup, NIN were far more associated with Goth as a subculture rather than a musical movement.